


Once, I had a dream...

by Likimeya



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-29
Updated: 2010-10-29
Packaged: 2017-10-12 22:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Likimeya/pseuds/Likimeya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the airport, after the Fischer job, Ariadne tries to have *the talk* with Arthur, with interesting results.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once, I had a dream...

They had all dispersed and left now that they had done what they had come together to do. They had taken leave of each other with glances and furtive gestures rather than words. They would talk on their phones later on, or so Ariadne hoped. Now it was only her and Arthur left, standing side by side outside the Arrivals gate at LAX airport.

They had drifted together in the crowded hall and walked out side by side. They hadn't said a word to each other, and didn't need to; it felt natural to be leaving together. But now that they were standing here at the airport's internal shuttle train station, the silence seemed oppressive. It was becoming increasingly hard not to think about the elephant in the room: the question of where they stood. It was time to settle some things.

Ariadne was a dummy at such talks and habitually avoided them like the plague. But she had always been sudeenly courageous when something felt especially important to her. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and took a deep breath.

"So… I dreamt the most curious thing on the plane earlier…"

"Oh?" Arthur's look of polite interest staggered her for a second, but she put it down to a sudden onslaught of shyness. People were usually braver in their dreams than in life, weren't they?

"Yes…", she went on, inching closer to him until their hips were almost touching, looking up at him in what she hoped was a sweetly seductive manner. She would have felt ridiculous had it been anybody else, but from the moment she'd met him Arthur's gentleness had always made everything she did feel right.

"I dreamt that you kissed me in a hotel hallway."

Arthur raised his eyebrows, his brow furrowing almost comically. "Ha!" A huge grin broke out across his face. "Ahahaaaaah hahahaha ha!" He was very nearly doubling up with laughter. "Kissing? Us? Really!?" More laughter, and was that a snort she had heard just now?? She stared open-mouthed while he went on snickering and shaking his head.

What the...?! She was too baffled for words, but she felt more like breaking his nose than trying to talk to him, anyway.

It finally stopped. Arthur wiped his eyes; apparently he was so amused he had laughed tears. How flattering.  
"You are really lucky, Ariadne, do you know? Having weird hallucinations like this, you'll never end up confusing dreams with reality!"

He took up his bag. "You're an amusing little thing. I hope we meet again some day." He gave her a jovial clap on the back that made her stumble forward a step. "I'm off then. Take care."

And without another word or glance, he jumped into the shuttle train that had just arrived and was closing its doors again leaving while Ariadne was still fighting to get her breath back. She could only stand paralysed and stare after its receding rear lights.

When it had gone around the corner of the building, she finally collapsed onto the steel outdoor staircase beside which they had been standing. She felt as if a steamroller had had just run her over; completely crushed. What in the name of all gods and saints, what had that just been?! Were all these dream people completely bonkers?  
And what was she to do now – emotion-wise, because clearly the only course of action left to her was to go to Departures, alone, and find a plane that would take her back to her city of love, alone. An ending like this to job like that… it had to be the steepest anti-climax in history, and she felt like the fall had broken something inside her. She was afraid to examine it more closely, for the moment, preferring to remain in a state of numbness as long as she could. And she was used to sitting on stairs anyway, being a student.

Suddenly there was a tap on her slumped shoulder.

Arthur was there again, standing on the stairs right behind her. Why… how? He must have gotten off the train and practically run back to her on the upper level. Like in a movie, or a dream. He took her hand and pulled her up onto her feet again and smiled down at her, kind brown eyes glinting wickedly.

"Just kidding", he said, and before she could gather her wits enough to slap him in the face for his bloody not-amusing act, he pulled her onto his step with both arms and close to him, and in for another kiss. It was as sweet as the one they had dreamt, but not so quick; rather deliciously prolonged and carefully slow, in fact, with a nip into Ariadne's bottom lip and a smile on Arthur's when it was returned; with open mouths and eager tongues and laboured breathing and ruffled hair.

It was funny, was the last thing Ariadne was able to think; dreams felt so real while you were in them, and only afterwards you realised how deficient they truly were compared to the real thing.


End file.
